Utilizing GIS's Power
MBA556 Current Topics in Information System Management

What can a Geographic Information System (GIS) do for a small business owner? First let us start with a definition of GIS; “a geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data.” (Wikipedia)
GIS can benefit almost all industries large or small and most organizations. According to the WEB site ESRI “The benefits of GIS generally fall into five basic categories: Cost Savings and Increased Efficiency, Better Decision Making, Improved Communication, Better Recordkeeping and Managing Geographically.” (ESRI)
Cost savings and increased efficiency: For a small business that operates even one truck, the GIS would gather the information as to where and when deliveries made. This will all the business to consolidate its runs maximize on fuel efficiency.
Better decision making: Generally, the GIS will help in the decision-making on locations. In the case of a small business that is primarily internet sales, it will help them to decide where to advertise. Which search engine is used most often and if there is an area that would be good for a billboard advertisement.
Improved communication: GIS can help the communications between departments, in the case of the small internet sales business it will show where the sales are generated and where the warehouse supplier is located. This can help the business with its inventory.
Better recordkeeping: The GIS for the small internet sales business would provide a map of where the sales are made. This will help the business is its tax records and sales record.
Managing geographically: For the small internet sales business, this will provide the mapping of the targeted demographic they are seeking.
GIS for the small business to sustain growth would be a system that track consumers use of the small business products. If there is a small business that has internet sales of shoes and purses, having the ability to see how many inquiry of the products that occurs within an area, this would give the small business the ability to advertise on the particular search engines that were used to conduct the sales.
The GIS today replaces the spreadsheet of yesterday. This system would collect the information of the types of searches and sales without collecting any personal information on any buyers. The program should be able to be tailored to the small business, in such that the small business can target customers within the area or go global if they deicide to do so. This type of GIS would have to have a partnership with Google or Yahoo or both and other search engines. The small business owner would have the ability to choose what to have in his or her inventory. “Small business owners starting a new firm or ones that have been in operation for a while are interested in the characteristics of the people who buy from them now and people who might potentially buy from them in the future. They want to know why people purchase or do not purchase goods and services.” (Fuller)
The GIS should use the demographic information collected by government and private agencies. ‘These sources provide information about population size, number of households, income distribution, educational levels, age distribution, etc. They include the Census of Population and Housing, the Economic Census, the Census of Retail Trade, Survey of Buying Power, Editor and Publisher Marketing Guide, and Bureau of Labor Statistics.” (Fuller) Using this demographic information in the GIS would show where the customer are and allow the business owner to divide the customers group into good,